This is pianist Laurent Coq’s fourth album as a leader and his first with his new American quartet. All the music, except Kenny Kirkland’s beautiful composition Dienda, was written by Laurent Coq, specifically for the musicians on the album. It is the culmination of two years of experimenting, rehearsing and performing together, as a band, in New York and abroad. The band plays regularly in New York and was featured in the latest edition of the JVC Jazz Festival in France where Mr. Coq is already recognized as one of the most innovative and original pianists and composers in jazz.

Recorded at Manfred Knoop Recording Studio, River Edge, New Jersey on March 11-12, 2003

A celestial and surprisingly fresh sound emanates from the first moments of Like a Tree in the City, Laurent Coq's first release on the Sunnyside label. This side of the Atlantic, Coq plays with tenor saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh, bassist Brandon Owens, drummer Damion Reid. Their ability to gel and groove and drift all with a unified aesthetic is notable at worst and virtuosic at best.

With a program of very progressive originals by Coq (plus "Dienda" by the late pianist Kenny Kirkland), the foursome manages to bring romanticism, realism, and surrealism to the table, from the ethereal "The World Belongs to Those Who Dare" to the suspended vamp "Friday Night at St. Nick's."

The beginning of "Sweet Sounds of Summer" is reminiscent of the melodic development of a Bach fugue and later turns into a much rhythmically freer swinger with excellent solos from Owens and Coq (who throws in some great Latin figures a la Chucho Valdes). Sabbagh shows his weight throughout with wonderful tone and harmonic genius. Chris Potter and Mark Turner better watch out, this Frenchman is set to tear up the scene any moment now.

The entire album lends itself to a modern intelligent ear and we can be sure there is much more heady original music to come from Laurent Coq.